The present invention generally relates to an advanced consumer telecommunications network for implementation in a Multi-Dwelling Unit (MDU). More particularly, the present invention relates to retrofitting or installing specialized telecommunications resources in a MDU and providing methodologies for users to interact with programming, such as video, delivered over the telecommunications network in the MDU.
Since the first days of television, television channels have been assigned numerals. To navigate among channels, the user typically had to either turn a knob or press a button or set of buttons. Where numerical buttons exist, the user may press the appropriate button(s) to navigate directly to the channel of his choice, provided he knows it. Alternatively, a user may move up and down the sequence of numbers in order until arriving at a channel of interest.
More recently, cable and satellite television systems have facilitated navigation among channels by providing a textual list of channels, program names, descriptions, and airtimes in a spreadsheet-like format. Users are allowed to scroll through the list until finding a channel of interest and then command the system to tune to that channel with the press of a button. Very recently, individual movies or other programs have been made available in addition to the traditional sequential channels. Navigation through those items is similar, although program or movie names are generally substituted for channel names and numbers.
For simplicity, the term “channel” as used in this document will refer to video and/or audio channels as well as video and/or audio programs that may or may not be part of a traditionally sequenced channel.
Glossary of Terms
Video—A series of motion images displayed in succession to create the appearance of real life. Video is transmitted in a Format that defines the amount of visual information conveyed in a given time interval. Common rate of frame or “frame rates” include but are not limited to 15, 24, 29.97 and 30 frames per second.
Format—The standard by which video is transmitted. Formats generally are divided into two groups, digital and analog. Digital Formats generally define the horizontal and vertical sizes of the images (in the form of individual dots or Pixels), the frame rate, the Color Space, transmission mechanism, encoding/digitizing mechanism, and Compression standards. Examples of this standard would be ATSC, MPEG4, MPEG2, MPEG1, etc. Analog Formats generally define the amount of frequency space or bandwidth dedicated to a given video channel, a method of modulating the analog signal on some type of carrier, a method of timing the screen refreshes and a color encoding method. Both Formats also contain audio information in a similar way.
Color Space—The amount of information capacity reserved for color information for a given pixel as well as the constituent colors used to define the gamut of color possible. For example red, green and blue (RGB) may be used to define 16.4 million colors in the visible spectrum of light using 8 bits or 1 byte of computer information per Pixel. Other popular Color Spaces include but are not limited to YUV (luminance, chrominance and saturation), Y—Pb—Pr (luminance, blue minus luminance, red minus luminance) and CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black).
Pixel—A singular dot of included color that is part of a mosaic of similar dots in a matrix that defines a seamless picture when viewed at a known distance.
Resolution—The definition of the amount of pixels in an image measured in horizontal and vertical dimensions along with a density of Pixels generally expressed in dots-per-inch (dpi). Common resolutions for Video are 720×480, 320×240 and 640×480. Video typically has the dpi of 72.
Aspect Ratio—The ratio of the horizontal to the vertical dimension for an image or Video. Typical aspect ratios are 4×3 often referred to as standard definition (SD) and 16×9 often referred to as high definition (HD).
Channel/Feed/Stream—The aggregated time line of video program content that is assembled by a content rights holder or the individual user that allows for continuous broadcast images and audio. This feed is comprised of Video selections tied together generally in the construct of a show or program. A feed or channel may be interactive allowing for the end user to affect the sequence of images commonly referred to as “trick play”. Examples of trick play would include fast forward, fast reverse, pause and rewind. A feed may also contain textual or ancillary data that may or may not be displayed by default on the screen. Sometimes this ancillary information will be interpreted by the playback device as information to be displayed visually. An example of this would be closed captioning.
Macroblocking—The concept of dividing the visual resolution of a video feed into smaller blocks generally but not limited to rectangles for the purpose of Compressing or referencing sub sections of a Video discretely.
Set Top Box (STB)—A client device used for accessing content provided by the Network. This device may include hardware specific to image and video rendering or may be software driven using a general purpose-computing device.
Compress/Compression—A technique that utilizes mathematical or statistical commonalities in the image or video stream to reduce the amount of data required to transmit and reconstruct the data. There are three major schools of Compression techniques. The first utilizes statistical self-similarity in the stream to reduce the transmission size. The second method of reduction is to discard detailed image information within a frame of video that is similar to adjacent parts of the image. This technique was popularized with JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) file Format. For example, in this scenario if 10 pixels of near blue color exist in a horizontal row the Compression algorithm may decide to store one pixel's complete color information and then tell the reconstruction algorithm to reconstruct ten more identical pixels. In some cases the reduction is loss-less in that only identical pixels are sampled in this way. The ratio of the Compression is related to the broadness of what pixels are close enough in Color Space to be considered identical in the reconstruction phase and the heterogeneous nature of the image. The third popular method of Compression is to Macroblock a Video stream and by comparing a block to blocks that have occurred temporally before or after the current block avoid re transmitting that block's data in the stream. Sometimes translation of a block's position on the screen is also used. The overall size of the data stream is reduced by not retransmitting sections of the video that are “similar enough” to other sections already (or possibly in the future) transmitted. This technique was popularized by the MPEG (Motion Pictures Expert Group) consortium. Most modern Compression relies on a combination of the above methods. There are many other Compression techniques that rely on different and in many cases proprietary algorithms.
Metadata—Statistical or annotative information relating to the content in a Video Stream. This information may be used to better identify the content present in the feed. The types of data typically included in Metadata would be author, content rights holder, theme or genre of the feed, actors or actresses shown in the feed, production information and content rating. There is no practical limitation to the amount and type of Metadata that may be associated with a stream.
Thus, a need has long been felt for a device that provides a user with an improved methodology for accessing, reviewing, or interacting with multiple channels of video. A need has especially been felt for an improved device that provides the user with the ability to sample multiple streams of video simultaneously.
We now turn to an additional aspect of the present telecommunication system, specifically, retrofitting or installing specialized telecommunications resources in a MDU
Retrofitting and Reconfiguring Risers in Older Buildings
FIG. 14 illustrates several systems associated with traditional risers in a MDU. Residential buildings built prior to the late 1980s were constructed with risers (also referred to as ducts or conduits in various building codes) to provide public telephone service, house telephone/buzzer entry systems, television signal distribution and electrical power distribution. Basic riser size, design and construction materials varied based upon local building codes and the specific use of the riser. Spare risers were generally not required by local building codes and were therefore not installed. Due to the absence of unused risers, it is difficult to upgrade existing high-rise buildings with increased electrical service, high-speed communications, fire annunciation, hard-wired smoke detectors, hard-wired heat detectors, emergency power and life safety systems. The installation of new risers in high-rise buildings is costly due to: i) the need to drill through the concrete slab of each floor to create vertical risers; ii) the need to create conduits for horizontal wiring runs and iii) the need to accommodate residents during demolition and construction.
Public Telephone Risers:
Risers for public telephone wiring 1401 were generally constructed to run vertically the entire height of the building, as shown in FIG. 14. At various locations, the telephone risers run through distribution panels 1402 in stairwells and landings where telephone pairs are split-off and run through smaller horizontal and vertical conduits to provide analog telephone service to nearby floors, units and offices. The number of pairs serving a unit determines the number of telephone lines available on a ratio of one telephone pair per one telephone line. In order to reduce expense, contractors often used soft conduit (wiring in a flexible plastic sleeve) rather than rigid metal conduit. During construction, telephone cables were laid on horizontal and vertical runs prior to pouring concrete. Concrete was then poured over or around the wire to seal it in place. These wires may not generally be removed without opening the concrete floors. If the number of telephone pairs is inadequate for modern use, it is difficult to increase telephone service due to the lack of vertical riser space and horizontal conduit space to the unit. Additionally, much of the telephone wiring is incompatible with DSL and data communications due to inadequate twists and or general deterioration due to age.
Television Signal Distribution
In older buildings, master antennas (MATV) 1403 were located on the roof to provide improved broadcast television reception to units. In many MATV designs, vertical risers using hard conduit were installed beginning in the penthouse area and ending at the lowest floor where residential units are located. These MATV risers ran within the walls of every residential unit and contained single coaxial cable runs that were split at each unit before being distributed to the next unit. This wiring plan is commonly referred to as “Loop Wiring”. Generally, these conduits are ½″ to ¾″ and may only accommodate a small number of coaxial cables. Current cable TV technology does not support bidirectional communications services such as cable modems over loop wiring. Accordingly, new risers have to be installed to provide dedicated wiring such as coaxial cable to each unit. This type of wiring system is referred to as “Home Run” wiring.
Electrical Service Upgrades
In older buildings, the power consumption of modern appliances has exceeded the design limits of electrical systems. In order to increase electrical service, new risers or vertical power cables have to be brought to each floor. In most buildings, existing electrical closets lack space to accommodate new electrical service due to the presence of electrical meters 1405. Accordingly, many building owners resort to reconfiguring common areas and or residential units in order to create new electrical closets with upgraded electrical service. This process is expensive, time consuming and diminishes the amount of rentable or salable square footage available.
Emergency Power
In many older high-rise buildings, local codes are requiring the installation of emergency power generators to provide power to emergency lighting, communication and elevators in the event of a power failure or other emergency. Most local codes require that location of emergency generators at or below grade level. Many of the power distribution feeds for elevators and emergency lighting are located in building penthouses. Older buildings were not designed with risers to connect emergency generators with penthouse electrical equipment. Accordingly, new emergency power risers need to be installed requiring core drilling through concrete slabs. Additional cost is incurred when installing these risers due to the need to enclose and decorate riser areas located in common areas.
Fire Annunciation Systems
Many building codes require fire annunciation systems whereby fire personnel may instruct residents in the event of an emergency. In older buildings, hard conduit was not constructed for fire annunciation systems. In order to install fire annunciation systems in these buildings, fire departments require dedicated equipment with battery backup and special fire rated cable or hard conduit. In order to install building annunciation systems, new vertical and horizontal risers or cable runs are required including floor penetrations and wall penetrations in units. The costs of installing new risers and hard conduit or fire rated cable is significant due to the lack of riser space.
Hard-Wired Smoke Detectors
Many building codes require hard-wired smoke detectors whereby the effectiveness of smoke detectors does not rely on residents replacing batteries. In older buildings, conduit and wiring was not installed to power hard-wired smoke detectors. In order to install hard-wired smoke detectors, new vertical and horizontal risers or wiring runs are required including floor penetrations and wall penetrations in units. The cost of installing this system is expensive due to the lack of riser space and conduits.
Hard-Wired Heat Detectors
Many building codes require hard-wired heat detectors whereby the effectiveness of heat detectors does not rely on residents replacing batteries. In older buildings, conduit and wiring was not installed to power hard-wired heat detectors. In order to install hard-wired heat detectors, new vertical and horizontal risers or wiring runs are required including floor penetrations and wall penetrations in units. The cost of installing this system is expensive due to the lack of riser space and conduits.
Security Cameras and Building Automation
In older buildings, coaxial cables are used to transmit security camera feeds. Often, coaxial cables are run through emergency stairwells to bring camera feeds 1416 to the penthouse distribution panel and then to distribute signals to the front desk. In many urban areas, fire departments are requiring the removal of coaxial cables from emergency stairwells due to safety concerns. Similarly, building automation and alarm systems are generally connected to alarm panels located by the front entrance of buildings. Many of the automation and alarm systems are monitoring equipment located in the penthouse of buildings and use emergency stairs to connect to monitoring panels. In older buildings, no vertical risers were installed for security camera feeds and building automation wiring. Accordingly, new risers are required to retrofit buildings with these capabilities.
Constructing Space Efficient Risers in New Construction Buildings
The construction of new buildings with advanced communications, electrical systems, life-safety and building automation systems pose significant challenges for engineers, real estate developers and property owners. In new construction, construction costs may range from $100-$300 per square foot. The square foot rental value of offices and apartments may exceed $25-$60 per square foot while the value of residential condominiums and cooperatives may exceed $700-$1,000 per square foot.
The installation of electrical rooms and communications closets in new construction consumes significant space that could otherwise be added to rental space or sold as residential living space. The installation of dedicated wiring for telephone, cable TV, fire annunciation, hard-wire smoke detectors, building automation and security cameras also consumes significant space thereby reducing the rentable or saleable square footage. Additionally, the cost of labor and wiring for these systems is significant.
Thus, it is desirable to have a communications network that combines features such as voice, video and data services, electrical closets, security cameras, building automation, fire annunciation systems, hard-wired smoke detectors, hard-wired heat detectors, electrical meters and other systems. Such a communications network may especially be desirable in a high-rise MDU, where the value per square foot is high and the space required to support and service several different systems may be eliminated thereby allowing the space to be sold or rented.